Improvement in coffins



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS HOLMES, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN COFFINS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 42,659. dated May l0, 18.64k

.T0 all whom t may concern,.- Beit known that I, THOMAS HOLMES, M.D., of Washington, District of Columbia, have ini' vented new and useful Improvements in Deodorizing-Coiiins, and I do hereby declare that the following is afull and exact description i thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference l marked thereon, making a part of this specil cation. l

The nature of my invention consists in the arrangement and construction of deodorizingl cases wit-h pipes fitted on the inside of a coffin i and on the under side of the lid of a coiiin. i

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation, as follows:

Figure 1 represents a perspective view of a cofn, showing the shapes of the eases and pipes. Fig. 2 represents a side elevation, showing the exact locations of the cases and piges. i

A represents the coffin, made of wood or 1ne`al.

B represents a groove in the inside of the cofn, extending down the center of its headpiece, in which a short horizontal and perforated pipe, C, is inserted, to which the leading vertical (three-eighths-of-an-inch) pipe D is attached, and extends down and along the center of the bottom of the cotin to a semi- I circular-shaped case or box, E. This ease is about tive inches wide, ten inches long, and ,l four inches high, made of metal, wood, or rubi br, and has two perforated partitions, G, with l a center compartment, E, in which deodorizing substances are placed. A part of the obnoxious gases from the body pass into the perforated pipe C, thence down and along the pipe D to the case E, where they are deodor ized, and from thence through the extended pipe, and are discharged at the foot of the coffin into the open air, freed of their obnoxious properties. On the inside of the lid of the eoffin,just above the chest ofthe corpse, I have a conical-shaped elastic case, J, about four inches wide in diameter at the bottom, and conta-ins an inside metallic box perforated, in which deodorizing substances are also placed and through which also a part of tl.e gases from the corpse pass out and escale through the lid of the coffin, deodorized.

I have likewise on the inside ot' the lid of the coffin, near the foot, another semieircnlarshaped case, K, having perforations L along the center ot' its bottom, and a perforated partition, M, and in the compartment P, I also put deodorizing substances, and the gases from the corpse enter through the perforations L ,l and pass out likewise deodorized through the pipe R at the foot ofthe lid of the coin.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The arrangement and construction of the deodorizirg-cases, with their pipes arranged and constructed in the inside of a coffin, as herein described, and for the purposes set forth.

THOS. HOLMES.

Witnesses:

J. FRANKLlN REIGART, J oHN S. HoLLiNGsHEAD. 

